ZuffenZeus

If the bumper is not seriously damaged, then I'd recommend a professional repaint, because if you purchase a used painted bumper on eBay, you'll more than likely get a bumper that's in the same condition and will need to be repainted. My original bumper is still in good condition and personally, unless you're OCD, you'd have a bumper that's factory paint matched and ready to mount. But finding used one on eBay or elsewhere that is not damaged, is hard to find. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to paint the new TT bumper because it was arctic silver, but it had a lot of stone chips on the paint and so I decided to do it right and have it resprayed. It only cost about $300. And that's with a well-known custom body shop in my area. I wouldn't recommend a Maaco job on Porsche bumpers. ha!

Regarding cooling... since I decided to use the original duct fictures that is designed to fit the smaller opening of the original bumper, the temps stay about the same as they did before ... that is, around 180 F. I'm not completely sure a larger opening is going to make a radical change in temps, but could help a little, IMHO. Fortunately, my car has never had a problem with overheating and I'm in the south where we've seen temperatures hit way above 100F the last two months.

jasile

NO serious damage to the car anywhere. Just annoying rock chips. I am not really looking to change my bumper but I do like what you did with yours.


Here in NC it gets hot too and I maintain the same 180 or so degrees. Interesting that the enlarged openings and the associated additional air flow over the rads doesn't provide even a slight cooling benefit.

KC-CarGuy

Nicely done.

ZuffenZeus

Thanks KC! I appreciate it!

Cuda911

Did you have some real jack stands under there too? No way I would trust a couple of old cement blocks.

m3driver

I'd call it a style change not an upgrade, and I dig both the looks. It looked good before, and looks good after.

ZuffenZeus

hahaha... yea, the cinder blocks were used as backup to my jack stands.

I'm not that redneck!

ZuffenZeus

Good perspective! I guess for me to go from a base bumper to TT/C4S bumper as well as adding GT3 style side skirts, it was an upgrade for me.

Woodman71

Speaking of facelifts...

Cuda911

OK. Because I was going to suggest adding a couple boards.

roadsession

Hi yeah I will definitely miss my 996.. my new Audi S8 is fast and comfy but lacks soul but I do school drop offs and with growing kids and going to dinner with clients etc, the 996 doesn't make sense anymore... I will get another Porsche someday

I had the third radiator in the center because I think all 996 C4 Tiptronics have the third radiator.

BTW: - make sure that your ballast resistors for your low stage fans are working. I found mine (like most 996's) had burned out and was causing excessive heat issues.

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...placement.html

roadsession

BTW - regarding the lower lip: make sure to keep the C4S lower lip you've got on there - not the Turbo lip.
Fellow PCA guy that I respect told me that the turbo lip is only made to go with the turbo's rear spoiler - and without the fixed rear spoiler of the Turbo, the air flow gets messed up and affects high speed stability.

Water Hound

Thanks for a great write up and good photos B3. What a difference this makes to your cab. Very tempting project for me too now that I've seen it. Hard to believe you did it for $1500 but shows what patience to wait for a good deal can achieve. If I decide to keep mine longer term this will be in the cards.

How many hours did this take once you got started?

ZuffenZeus

Yea, I've seen those 996 to 997 "facelifts", but for the cost of the 997 front bumper, L&R fenders, and Xenon HID lights, LED blinkers, you could easily sell the 996 and use the money to purchase a decent 997.1. Then, you'd have the real deal! Personally, I'd rather keep the 996 a... 996.

ZuffenZeus

Oh yea, the third is to provide additional cooling that's needed for the automatic transmission. Makes sense.